Ford Escape Energi Plug-In Hybrid Caught Testing – Spy Photos

Once upon a time, Ford built a small fleet of Escape plug-in hybrids and then shipped them off to Southern California Edison (SCE) to begin road testing.

Now just a scant 10 years later, Ford is now testing a new generation of plug-in Escape. And although that original Escape PHV, with its 10 kWh/30 mile range compact SUV never arrived – this one will, as the demand for plug-in versions of popular utility vehicles are at an all-time high.

The Escape Energi mule we caught today looks to be both longer and wider than the current edition, with the plug-in port is in the standard “Ford location”.

2020 Ford Escape Energi Plug-In Hybrid (Automedia)

The Ford Escape Plug-In Hybrid is expect to arrive in late 2018/early 2019 as a 2020 model. As soon as it does, you can bet the current C-Max Energi will be gone.

In addition to the Escape PHV (Kuga for Europe), recent trademark applications indicate that Ford also has designs on plug-in hybrid versions of the Explorer, Transit, Focus.

Gallery (below): A couple shots of the standard Escape also out testing for some further reference on the look and sizing of the new Ford, plus a glimpse of the “old” hotness.

New Ford Escape (non plug-in)

New Ford Escape (non plug-in)

Original flavor

For some “retro fun” we have added some B-roll footage of the original Ford Escape PHV below.

We had somebody who claimed to be a GM manager commenting here, and he said something about light diesels being the GM’s “green” engine for diesels. Like it was still 1997 or something, and they were trying to compete with the VW TDI.

The concern for “too little, too slowly” had been expressed as part of the bankruptcy recovery. There was worry that Volt wouldn’t make much progress into the mainstream… which is exactly what happened.

Cries for an Equinox using Voltec have gone nowhere; instead, GM is rolling out a diesel model.

With the upcoming expiration of the $7,500 tax-credit combined with rumor about Ford pursuing a plug-in hybrid SUV, hearing nothing whatsoever about GM’s plan is definitely reason for renewed concern.

Probably correct – but GM will likely roll it out as their allotment of EV tax credits is expiring. They will also overprice it so sales will be lousy. At low sales volume, we will then be treated to reports in the media of how GM loses $30k per $45k PHEV CUV.

It would take more than 11kWh to get your 35 miles. Ford currently gets 21 miles out of their 7.6kWh packs in the energi’s, and those are smaller than a CUV/SUV. They would need at least 13kWh to get 35 miles. The pack may be smaller in size, but you still need that much energy to get those miles.

Completely agree. However, with new leadership, maybe there is hope yet for Ford to take a leadership position among the Detroit automakers. GM apparently is willing to relinquish their leadership among the traditional ICE companies.
A properly designed PHEV CUV will propel Ford ahead of GM in EVs.

I’d like to think you’re right, but I fear not. After reading an article yesterday about Ford abandoning car development in favor of mostly Trucks (and EVs and auto-drive tech) I don’t see those as being a great indication. Especially since they just formed their “Edison” group, which they should have done a decade ago.

That Escape Energi charging door is not the standard Energi charging door. That looks the CCS charging door of the 2017 Ford Focus Electric. Is it possible that the Escape Energi will get CCS charging capabilities?

Interesting.. I had no idea this was a thing. I wonder if they saw all of the pent-up demand for the Outlander PHEV so decided to bring their own?

This would be a highly successful product if they went the Rav-4 route and made the PHEV the only way to get all-wheel-drive.

I’m hoping since this is a brand-new body style, that maybe a little more fore thought went into this PHEV. If they package the batteries correctly and give it a decent range, they’ll have a great product on their hands.

If they do it right and put in a big enough battery and drive motor then good. That was the nicest thing about the Volt (I had a leaser for 3 years).
But I’m afraid that it will be a disappointment.

I’d rather have a low cost Model X. The guy I bot my used 2012 S from just bought a used X for 75k$. It was a 60 and for 4500 he had it updated to a 75 by Tesla…..so 80k$. It is a fairly new one and I teased him about the doors being in the service center all the time and he said they were working well.

Still out of my league in the money dept.

Now add to that he listens to Rush L. on the Radio. He lives in Texas.

Nobody should claim someone is bad based on their political party affiliation. That is just wrong. Both party has their own extremist who are very loud and advocate ill upon the opposing the party. Luckily, I don’t believe they are in the majority. Although, after recent election it seems that form of extremism is taking over both party which is extreme worrisome.

Even though I disagree more with Republicans than Democrats (I am neither), I still won’t say all Republicans are bad. We are all American and we should fight the divide and extremism among us.

Because studies have been done that revealed that 50 miles of EV range would cover the daily driving needs of over 80% of the driving population in the US. Minimizing gas consumption is the name of the game, isn’t it?

btw, seems the Prius may lose the #1 best selling hybrid crown to the Ford Fusion hybrid this year. Prius name ain’t what it used to be.

This will be the next gen Escape/Kuga PHEV on a new platform, no more batteries in the hatch. Due in 2019 as a MY2020.

The big hold up with the Escape hybrid and PHEV was that Ford had to engineer their Hybrid AWD system along with Ford’s own battery chemistry. Which may mean an optional e-AWD system that powers the rear wheels via an electric motor like RAV4 Hybrid. Or a new hybrid parallel AWD system. But either way, it’s also coming to a Focus ‘variant’. And should be part of what makes the new Ford ‘hybrid’ vehicle.

Range is expected to be at least 31 miles so it qualifies for the EV incentives in China. Otherwise, there is no point.

Yes, C-Max will be replaced, but not with the Escape. New ground up hybrid models are coming to take it’s place.

Right now we have a Model S (2013 CPO) and my wife’s XC60 gasser (small luxury SUV). I would LOVE to replace the XC60 with a PHEV small SUV. The upcoming XC60 T8 looks promising, but, sheesh, as my wife approaches retirement I’d really prefer not to be dropping big coin on yet another car. As we all know, the biggest “luxury feature” a car can have is the electric drive experience, so while an Escape won’t compare in many ways to an XC60, it may in the most important way (EV experience).

The 160,000 mile (life cycle) question remains: Will Ford engineer liquid cooling for the battery, and stop allowing it to charge to ~95%? Both design choices in the current Energi models are resulting in unnecessary premature degredation of their batteries. Consumers, especially buyers, need to be informed of these engineering choices, and if Ford doesn’t straighten out these known issues, they should be prepared for the better engineered GM, Tesla, BMW, etc plug ins to eat their lunch.

It’s definitely 100% the Escape (Kuga) Energi plug-in hybrid, and you can notice the standard petrol Escape version testing at the same time in the gallery below the story (which we don’t like to feature larger in the story because well…petrol only, and we don’t want those folks looking to us for spyshots, lol)

There were seven utilities who tested the plug-in Escape under the EPRI/DOE/Ford program: NYPA, DTE, National Grid, ConEd, AEP, FirstEnergy, Progress Energy, Alabama Power, and NYSERDA. The plug-in Escapes all went back to Ford at the end.